Reality check

Who would have thought that the conservative Wisconsin Policy Research Institute would be the ones to burst Mark Green's bubble?

Based on some dubious polls, Green's been claiming to be tied or even ahead of Jim Doyle, but this right-wing sponsored poll has Doyle up by 12.

WPRI's spin is that Green is ahead among people who know both him and Doyle. What that fails to take into account is that most of the people who know who Green is (a) either live in his Green Bay-area district or (b) are Republicans. Green's favorable-unfavorable rating is only 26-19, the poll says. More than half of the people don't know him, which makes those polls showing him ahead of Doyle incredible.

WPRI did not release cross-tabs, but at least we know who paid for this one.

George W. Bush, who's coming here July 11 to raise money for Green, has a 37-59 positive-negative rating. Hope we see lots of photos of them hugging.

Here's the AP story and the WPRI report.